Total War: Rome 2 Gets Barbaric at GDC 2013

Total War has always been a series about big numbers, so Creative Assembly can be forgiven for laying it on pretty thick with the statistics at the beginning of their GDC presentation. According to the brand director in charge of the slides, the franchise boasts 680,000 active users, 10 million hours played per month, and 2 million total sales in 2012.

One slide showed numbers that apply specifically to Total War: Rome 2, which will boast Creative Assembly’s largest ever development budget, 183 separate map regions, more factions, more units per battle — more, in short, of everything. Some of those record-setting dollars were even spent on setting the mood for the demo we were about to see — on fake columns, fake boar carcasses, and catering waiters dressed in authentic costume:

The demo depicted the battle of Teutonberg Forest, one of the stand-alone “Historical Battles” that Total War has featured for some time. The historical context was carefully provided for our benefit: Teutonberg Forest was a crushing defeat for the Roman Empire, which considered the province of Germania pacified. Legions led by General Quintus Varus were betrayed by a German lieutenant named Arminius, who was acting as Varus’ scout and an ambassador to local tribes. Rather than reaffirming the tribes’ commitment to empire, Arminius formed a confederacy of pissed-off chieftains, who proceeded to ambush the Roman forces on a narrow forest track, putting them at a tactical disadvantage.

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2 Comments on Total War: Rome 2 Gets Barbaric at GDC 2013

DrChannington

On April 5, 2013 at 3:43 am

So hyped for this game… still not pre-ordering though. Learned that lesson after Aliens: Colonial Marines.

I loved Rome and Medieval II, never cared for the more recent releases and they did not cover things I have much interest in. But this does seem good, so long as they have the Gaul’s as a faction, I am not a fan of the ruthless Roman Empire (The “Barbarians” were the civilized ones) I am looking forward to beating them down!

Just hope my now aging PC can cope with it, I will probably wait for a demo first.

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